Rockchip RK32xx Category - Page 13 of 28 - CNX Software

March 21, 2016March 22, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

GearBest 2nd Anniversary Promo Offers Cheap TV Boxes and Routers

GearBest has become fairly popular since it launched two years ago, mostly thanks to aggressive pricing, promotions, and coupons, and the company is celebrating its anniversary with some more discounts with recent TV boxes as low as $23, routers for $12 and up, and other accessories. Some potentially interesting deals include: Chiptrip MXV S805 TV box with Amlogic S805 and Android 4.4 for $29.99 Beelink X2 TV box with Allwinner H3 and Android 4.4 for $26.89 MX4 TV box running Android 4.4 on Rockchip RK3229 for $22.99 Xiaomi Mi WiFi mini 802.11ac router for $28.49 (Update: also found on eBay for $21.70 shipped) oops that’s the Youth Edition, only 802.11n) EasyCast WiFi Display Dongle for $11.99 NEXX WT3020F OpenWrt compatible router for $12.74 Please note that some are flash sales with 100 to 300 pieces, and discounted prices may not be active right now. [Update: Finally, only the flash sales […]

March 21, 2016August 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments

MXQ-4K RK3229 TV Box Firmware Update – March 8, 2016

MXQ-4K is one of the first TV boxes based on Rockchip RK3229 processor, and while it promised a lot with regards to high bitrate 4K H.265, H.264 and VP9 videos, it failed it deliver when I tested some videos from a USB hard drive, and its Antutu score varies from 12,000 to 19,000 depending on the ambient temperature… The company has now released a new firmware, albeit without any changelog. The build number is rk322x-eng 4.4.4 KTU84Q eng.hotack.2016.03.08.102208 test-keys meaning it was build on March 8, 2016. There are about three apps for OTA firmware update in the January firmware, but none of them worked, so I had to update firmware using the “USB OTG” method, meaning all your settings and apps will be wiped out, so if you don’t have a backup, be prepare to re-install everything. So first, you’ll need to download the firmware (MXQ-4K_ota_20160308.zip), and extract it. […]

March 15, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.5 on Sunday: So this is later on a Sunday than my usual schedule, because I just couldn’t make up my mind whether I should do another rc8 or not, and kept just waffling about it. In the end, I obviously decided not to,but it could have gone either way. We did have one nasty regression that got fixed yesterday, and the networking pull early in the week was larger than I would have wished for. But the block layer should be all good now, and David went through all his networking commits an extra time just to make me feel comfy about it, so in the end I didn’t see any point to making the release cycle any longer than usual. And on the whole, everything here is pretty small. The diffstat looks a bit larger for an xfs fix, because that fix has […]

March 9, 2016March 9, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

10-bit H.264 and H.265 Video Playback in MXQ-4K Rockchip RK3229 TV Box

Rockchip RK3229 is an exciting media processor because it’s found in ultra low cost TV Boxes such as MXQ-4K, outputs up to 4K @ 60 Hz, and supports 4K video decoding of 10-bit H.264, 10-bit H.265 and VP9, including videos with very high bitrates (200+ Mbps). That’s the theory, which I’ve put to the test with MXQ-4K TV box. Since the network interfaces of the device are limited to 100M Ethernet and 802.11n WiFi, and some videos are well above 100 Mbps, I’ve decided to test video playback from a USB hard drive instead. I’ve tried the three pre-installed video player apps: Kodi 15.1, “Video”, and “Video Player” , and they all have similar capabilities except Kodi is a little less stable on this device. The system detected my 4K TV (LG ) and automatically set the resolution to 3840×2160 @ 60 Hz, which I used for the remainder of […]

March 8, 2016March 21, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

How to Resize Partitions and Update Firmware in MXQ-4K TV Box (Rockchip RK3229)

Since I’ve received MXQ-4K Android TV box yesterday, I have started to play with it, and so far I can’t say I’m impressed, as while the device automatically detected the maximum resolution (3840×2160 @ 60 Hz) for my television, I could not play any of my 4K samples smoothly with either the pre-installed Kodi 15.2, Video and Video Player apps, there’s no power off mode (only standby), and the “internal partition” is only 0.96GB large which can quickly become an issue if you plan on installing several apps. Since GeekBuying has released the stock firmware, I decided to try to adapt the method to resize the partitions for GeekBox (RK3368) to MXQ-4K. Rockchip RK3229 Firmware Modding I’ve used a computer running Ubuntu 14.04, and assume you have most tools pre-installed. The first step is to download the firmware (MXQ-4K_ota_ok_20160127.img update.img), and install the tools to extract it :

git clone https://github.com/geekboxzone/utils
cd utils/rockdev
mv MXQ-4K_ota_ok_20160127.img update.img
./unpack.sh

git clone https://github.com/geekboxzone/utils

cd utils/rockdev

mv MXQ-4K_ota_ok_20160127.img update.img

./unpack.sh

The […]

March 7, 2016March 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Firefly-RK3288 Reload Board Features a SoM + Baseboard Design, Supports SATA, Three HDMI Ports, and More

Firefly-RK3288 was one the first boards powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 processor, and now Firefly team, part of T-Chip technology, has provided a new version called Firefly-RK3288 Reload with the same processor, but more features, and thanks to design comprised of a carrier board and system-on-module (SoM) – connected via an MXM connector – suitable to people or companies wanting to create their own board without handing the complexity of the processor, memory, and storage part. The table below shows Firefly-RK3288 and Firefly RK3288 Reload specifications side-by side. Parameter Firefly-RK3288 (Plus) Firefly-RK3288 Reload SoC Rockchip RK3288 ARM Cortex-A17 quad core processor up to 1.8GHz with ARM Mali-T760 MP4 GPU RAM 2GB Dual-Channel DDR3 (Plus version is 4GB) 2GB Dual-Channel DDR3 Storage 16GB eMMC (Plus version is 32GB) MicroSD (TF) Card Slot 16GB eMMC MicroSD (TF) Card Slot SATA 2.0 (Suggest 2.5 inch SSD or HDD) PMU ACT8846 […]

March 7, 2016March 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 48 Comments

MXQ 4K Rockchip RK3229 Android TV Box Unboxing and Teardown

MXQ 4K TV box list of features is rather impressive, as the 4K media player packs support for high bitrate (200 Mbps+) 10-bit H.265 and H.264, as well as VP9 at 4K resolution, 4 USB ports, Ethernet, and HDMI 2.0 for just $30. That price includes shipping. We just don’t know how it performs, but we’ll soon find out as GeekBuying sent me a sample for review. I’ll start by checking out the hardware, before testing it over a few days, and write a complete review. MXQ 4K Unboxing The retail package shows MXQ-4K “OTT TV Box” and some of the key selling points like Kodi support, 4K, HEVC/H.265, and son on. You’ll also find the Android 4.4 Kitkat logo since strangely Rockchip did not provide an Android 5.x SDK for their low cost processor. The device ships with an IR remote control, a 5V/2A power supply, an HDMI cable, […]

March 4, 2016March 4, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Zidoo X1 II Android Media Player Powered by Rockchip RK3229 SoC Supports 4K 10-bit H.264 & H.265 Videos

Rockchip RK3229 is a low cost 4K SoC that supports 10-bit H.265 up to 4K @ 60 fps and 10-bit H.264 and VP9 up to 4K @ 30 fps, and found in inexpensive TV boxes such as MXQ 4K. Zidoo has decided to design a new product based on the processor, with the same enclosure as Allwinner H3 based Zidoo X1 TV box, and aptly called Zidoo X1 II. Zidoo X1 II specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3229 quad core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K2K @ 60 fps, and 3.5mm AV output (composite) Connectivity – 100Mbps Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – IR receiver Power Supply – 5V/2A […]